Grecian

A bit late to the party on this one, but would just like to say many thanks parsnips for flagging up the possibility of a rebate, and for posting a draught letter for us to adapt in reclaiming our social charges. I collated all the relevant pieces of paper over the week-end and sent off our claim yesterday, nothing more to be done but wait for a response. Once again many thanks parsnips.

We had our pompier call last week, it is the earliest they have ever called. andyh4 mentioned that he gave a donation for the La Poste calendar, can somebody tell me if this is expected please. We just thought that it is a free calendar that La Poste gives to its customers. We always give our nice post lady a tip at Christmas, usually about the first or second week of December, so if she was expecting a tip when she handed over our calendar she was probably thinking tight English **!!%%% or something like that. Really didn't know we were expected to give a donation for it. Oops.

Wow, I wish I hadn't asked. [:-))] So basically the usual total confusion when it comes to the French language regarding the letter T, what chance do we have. It would seem to be a case of learning the various 'T' words by heart, dead easy as the rest of the French language is soooo easy.[:D] Thank you all for trying to explain the letter T to me.

Got to admit this one has confused me since I  have lived here, although most of the French language does that to me. Words ending in T, hmm... My confusion arises from when you pronounce the T or not, for example: The word But I would consider pronouncing but as, boot, that would include pronouncing the T, but then take the word Sport, to my mind that is pronounced spoor, no T. As neither word has an e or s after it, how do you know when to pronounce the T? Is there a hard and fast rule for words ending in T, little chance of that I would guess being the French language, or is it a case of learning all the words by heart. If anybody can shed some light on this matter it would be most appreciated.

As it has been just over a year now since I started this thread, I thought I would provide an update. This time last year I was completely all over the place, having just been diagnosed with bowel cancer, not knowing how the whole process worked and having to organize my own appointments for scans etc. Thanks to the help of all you kind people who contributed to this thread you all pulled me through the ordeal, and today I find myself in a better place. Since being discharged from hospital in Bordeaux on May 7th I have had two 3 monthly scans to check for any recurrence or spread. Thankfully I can report that both scans were clear, with no problems anywhere. Further to this the inflammation on my pancreas has completely disappeared, so my pancreas has recovered to its original state. I must say this is a huge relief to me, as I wasn't sure just what to make of the pancreas problem, especially on top of everything else I had to contend with. On the down side I am still having a lot of problems with bowel control, things have improved from the initial 20 or so times a day, and some days I do have reasonable days of maybe 'only' 4 or 5 times a day, but this can go up to somewhere near a dozen times a day, on a bad day. Considering everything that was done to me with the three operations I guess it is no surprise that things are still a bit upset inside me. To add to my problems I now have two hernias, one on my belly button and one to the right of my stoma scar, which is causing a lot of bloating on the right side of my tummy. My own doctor has refused to send me to see a specialist at my local hospital and has told me that I must wait to see the surgeon at Bordeaux. I had an appointment to see him for the 16th October, but unfortunately the appointment was cancelled, and my new date is 20th November. So I will just have to battle on for another 4 weeks before I see him. Whilst I am not too keen on another operation to sort the problems out, I would rather it is done as soon as possible, and hopefully alleviate the bloating problem. So all in all I feel I have been fortunate, if that is possible having being diagnosed with cancer that things were not a lot worse, plus the fact that I have not had to endure another 6 months of chemo after my operation. So at the moment there has been a reasonably happy ending, unfortunately I know that I will be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life, but at least I will have regular scans for the next 5 years, if anything shows up hopefully it can be dealt with swiftly. So once again many thanks to all you people out there who supported me throughout the last year, and the advice that you offered. It certainly helped me through a very difficult period in my life.

Thank you all very much for your comments and advice. Well in the end I have decided to be the model citizen and have sent Fortuneo the relevant information that they were seeking. I kept the reply to a simple 3 line response, source, use of funds, and destination of funds. The whole affair has made me very angry and nectarine I must admit your response was tempting to translate, but at the end of the day I do not fancy a gendarme's size 12 boot kicking the door down at 5am! I had thought how stupid the request is because surely if you had obtained the money fraudulently then you would not declare the source of your ill gotten gains, but Chancer has shot that theory down in flames,[Www] great stuff Chancer I would have loved to have seen the face of the manager.

I would like to post a victory for the little man against the mighty French bureaucratic system. I had two appointments at Bordeaux on the 27th May and 12th June, for which I booked a taxi for each journey. I obtained a demande d'entente préalable for each journey and sent them off to CPAM at Noirt, they responded quite quickly, and informed me that they would only pay for a journey to Poitiers, as Bordeaux is outside the 150 kms limit. I told my doctor of this and he composed a very good letter for me explaining that I had not asked for the operation to be performed at Bordeaux, it was the surgeon at Bressuire hospital that sent me to Bordeaux. Also I had had two emergency operations performed at Bordeaux so it was imperative that I have my follow up appointments there. We sent the appeal off nearly two months ago, and waited and waited and waited, for a reply. The taxi firm were getting a bit jumpy for their money as the combined bills came to nearly a 1000 euros. Yesterday I received a letter from CPAM, they was a lot of legal gobbly gook on the first page, but the one line that mattered said, after considering the new evidence provided the panel has agreed to pay for the two journeys in full, or something like that in French! Yippee result obtained, I really do not know what will happen when I have my next appointment in October at Bordeaux, and will worry about that in October for the moment though: Grecian 1 CPAM 0 [:D]

I am wondering if anybody can advise my on an e-mail I received from Fortuneo regarding a recent currency transfer I made in my current account there. The cheeky bas***** are asking me for details where the money has come from, what I intend to do with it, and where I have moved it onto, claiming they are conforming to 'rules'. The amount is less than £10,000 an amount which I have in the past transferred into my Credit Agricole account with no such similar request from them. Every now and again Fortuneo demand that I change my password for access to my account, they then may it compulsory to fill in a questionnaire asking lots of personal questions that has nothing to do with them, so I am thinking that this e-mail may just be them snooping, rather than an official line they are following. Before I tell them very politely where to get off, I would like to know if they are within their rights in asking me about my deposit.

Hello Norman, just popping in to see how you are progressing. Whilst I am sure it sounds nice to be recuperating by the sea, and to have nice weather at the moment, if your room is not air conditioned I am guessing things could be a little uncomfortable heat wise at the moment. Have you been given any indication when you are likely to be able to go home? Or are you already at home, I hope so. Wishing you all the best for your continued recovery.

Hello smiler and welcome to the forum. Just a few comments on being a type 1 diabetic in France. If your husband is injecting either pork or beef insulin, then I am afraid that is not available in France, only human insulin. This created my wife awful problems for quite a while having to switch from beef insulin to human insulin, she lost all her control for quite a while. Happily now that she is used to the human insulin, her control is better than when she was on beef insulin. She has her long-term blood test carried out every 3 months, you will need to obtain a prescription for the blood test from your own doctor. Retinopathy eye test once a year, you must book your own appointment at a specialist optician yourself, in our area there is about a 2 to 3 month waiting list to see him/her, so it will need to be organized in advanced. Coming over as non-actives you will be running the risk of not being accepted into the health system, if CPAM through a wobbly when you apply to join. Each case is now treated on its merits, so you may come across a nasty official who may try to block you from joining the system, it could be a lottery as to whether you are accepted or not. As you have said it is nigh impossible to obtain full health insurance with a pre-existing condition.. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

That's great news Norman, so pleased for you, you really do deserve a break after all you have been through. Yes I guess we are both on the way back up, to be cancer free is all that we can ask for at this moment in time, will just have to see what the future brings. Rabbie thanks for your good wishes, glad to of been of assistance in cheering you up! gardengirl glad to hear you have been clear for a year now, long may it continue. Quite happy to join in with the toast, here's to 'better health', cheers. Yes we are all very lucky.

Hello Norman, my complications, well, I had a CT scan 2 weeks ago and saw my surgeon again at Bordeaux last week. The inflammation on my pancreas has reduced to 50% of what it was, the surgeon didn't seem to be concerned and said I can eat and drink normally again. The CT scan included my first 3 month check-up which thankfully turned out to be clear, no secondary spread, really good news. Unfortunately on the pooping front things are still really bad, probably going between 15-20 times a day still, it is really dragging me down at the moment. The surgeon told me it will take at least 6 months for any improvement, and in my case it could be nearer 12 months after what my body had been through. Something to look forward to. So really good news that CT scan was clear, better news on the pancreas, but pooping wise still horrendous. Hope you are getting stronger each day now, and will be able to return home sometime soon in the future. Hope you enjoyed your ice cream!

Well I am almost jealous Norman, seaside, sun and ice cream, I had to make do with compotes and a 10 foot square room with no outlook at Bordeaux. Glad to see  you are able to get out and about, I am guessing your recuperation must be going to plan. Hope you can manage more than just ice cream at the moment, but it is a slow process this post-op recovery lark. I had my first alcohol for 3 months last week, just to see if I still like it of course.[;-)]

Gosh you really are going through it Norman, it's a good job that they picked up the embolism and have operated to remove it. I will have my last blood thinning injection tomorrow. I have been injected everyday for 11 weeks now, I thought it to be a bit OTT, but I think I will review my opinion if it has prevented an embolism. Enjoy you stay by the sea side.

Sorry that you had to have a second emergency operation Norman, I know all too well that it can set you back again. Hope the procedure was carried out via keyhole and not open surgery, my 8 inch scar is healing nicely but it has left a dent in my tummy! Are you back on solids yet, or is it just water or those pesky compotes? Really wishing you a speedy recovery Norman and hope you return home as soon as possible, although I must admit to being slightly jealous about the sea view, I had to look across at another block of wards at Bordeaux.

I really hope you are do not need a second operation Norman, you have been through enough already in your life. The last thing you want after your operation is a blockage at this stage, hopefully that fact that they are now feeding you those delicious compotes is a good sign. I have been wearing the pads since my stoma reversal over 6 weeks ago, and have purchased some from UK Amazon, the cheapest I could find actually, which are really good quite thin and fairly comfortable. Thankfully I do not have diarrhoea just constant small stools sneaking out. The trip to Bordeaux will be daunting but as you suggested I will mention it to the taxi driver, I know all of them quite well now, and ask him to pull over if too big a mishap should happen.

Bertiebe I am afraid I cannot report any improvement unfortunately, the daily toilet use is really dragging me down at the moment, somewhere between 15-20 times a day, not exaggerating unfortunately. What makes it worse is that I have no control when the little buggers want to slip out, they just evacuate when they are ready. I saw my own doctor yesterday but he refused to give me a prescription for any Loperamide, saying that I must not cause a blockage, really 20 times a day and he is worried about a blockage! I have an appointment to see one of the surgeons who 'had a go at me' on Wednesday at Bordeaux, hopefully to have my pancreas drain and bag removed, to make matters worse the nurse pulled the drain out yesterday when changing my bag. I had to telephone Bordeaux to seek their advice, the doctor told me to continue to wear a bag without the drain in place, he has faxed a prescription to my local laboratory at Bressuire for a blood test on Tuesday to check the pancreas before I see the surgeon again on Wednesday. This is the second time that a nurse has pulled the drain out, the first time it happened I spend 4 hours in A&E at Bressuire hospital for a surgeon to put the drain back in again. I really do not know how I am going to cope with the 500 Km journey on Wednesday, I hope mind over matter will prevail and I don't have any mishaps on the journey. I hope you are coping with your 150 Km journey each week, the hassle just seems to go on and on, I guess one day tings will return to some sort of normal, I certainly hope so.

Very glad to hear things went well Norman, I hope the setback isn't too serious, I know all about setbacks! Have you progressed to the tasteless soup and compote yet?[:D] I hope that your hospital stay will be a lot shorter than last time, not the place you want to spend too much time by choice.

Blimey Norman, there you have been giving me so much help and support, and now this has happened to you. Really sorry to hear you have to go through the operation, and recovery period, with all that entails. Thank goodness they have caught it early, always best to have that on your side. Wishing you all the very best of luck, and a speedy recovery, although I know only too well, that the recovery bit takes a long, long time. Really hope your stay in hospital is not as long as the last operation. Richard

Thanks for that Josie, you are quite right box 8TA is now on the 2042K, which will save a lot of trees not having to print off 8 pages of the 2042CK just to fill in one box!

Here we go again. I have been trying to print off a 2042CK form from the internet, to declare my UK tax credits for 2014. Although on the official site the heading reads 2042CK, when you click on the link to bring up the form, the form is only a 2042C. The box I used last year under Divers, box 8TA does not exist this year on the 2042C. Can somebody maybe point me in the direction as to where to find a 2042CK form to print off, or advise me if there has been any changes to the treatment of UK tax credits, or where I must now declare them. Many thanks in advance.

Thank you all for your kind wishes. Must admit it is really nice to be home again, although it is quite scary as to how weak I still am, my wife is telling me I am expecting too much too soon, which she is probably right. I did manage to have a reasonably long walk yesterday so must be healing, need to put some weight back on as I lost 17 Kgs whilst in hospital, quite a scary amount, my wife was really shocked when she saw me on Thursday. It pains me to see my garden in such a mess, but really cannot do much about it at the moment, I will have to pay somebody to come in and cut the grass, and do some strimming, I certainly will not be up to very much for the foreseeable future that's for sure. Norman so sorry to hear you will be back on the compotes again on Monday, I really hope your hospital stay is nothing too serious. Best of luck for Monday.

Since my last update just over two weeks ago, it has been a real roller coaster. My transfer to Bressuire was blocked because I still have a drain bag for my pancreas, and they refused to accept me, thanks a lot. Our French neighbours have finally rallied around my wife, who has been offered lots of support from them. I probably hit my lowest point in the last two weeks, only to have hit my highest point today. Briefly, about two weeks ago they removed the awful tube from up my nose, which was in place for 10 days, no food for the next day, but then I was started back on solids. They gave me chicken for lunch, and ham for tea, quite stupidly on my part I eat all of it, having not eaten meat for 6 weeks previously. Unfortunately my body was unable to digest the second meal, and rampant sickness with plenty of green gloop pouring down the sink during the night and early morning. Food stopped again, low point, started back on my favourite tasteless soup for a day, then back on solids. Last Thursday at about 5.30am the runs started, I then spent most of Thursday morning and early afternoon visiting the toilet, not kidding over 20 times! Really low, it would seem every time I tried to eat solids the body was reacting to the food very badly. I did manage 2 biscottes and cheese on Thursday night. Friday only two yogurts all day, Saturday back on solids again, no problem from either end, and I managed to pass a stool[:D], the first for over 6 weeks! I have been managing to eat solids since last Saturday, and was informed by the surgeon two days ago that today I can go home[:D][:D][:D], I still have the problem with the pancreas but they are prepared to discharge me, but I will be under the care of a nurse at home. I must also come back to bordeaux in 2 weeks time for the drain to be removed. So after 7 and a half weeks in hospital I will finally get to see chez moi and my wife again today, to top it all today is my birthday, the best present I could have been given. I know I never want to see another biscottes or compotes for the rest of my life, bloody awful things!

Following on to my last post, I have agreed with the doctors this morning that I will spend another week here in Bordeaux, and then reassess the situation. If things haven't improved and it is going to be a long haul, then I will request a move back to Bressuire. As much as I want to see my wife again, we both feel for the time being I am better off in Bordeaux.

Thank you all for your replies today, it really has helped a lot. In a low spot at the moment but I am determined not to be spending anymore time here than I need to, so back to being positive. Physically I am in reasonable shape, obviously still pretty sore from the open surgery, but I am managing two quite long walks each day now. As regards to moving back to a hospital nearer home, I asked the surgeon last Friday, after he delivered his bombshell, if I could be moved to Bressuire hospital, to which he replied, no problem, I will organise it for next week. Having now thought it through and talked it through with my wife we think maybe to stay at Bordeaux 2 more weeks, and see where I am health wise then. At the moment I have a single room with toilet and basin, the hospital offers wi-fi, telephone and television. Bressuire hospital does have single rooms, but also double rooms as well, it would really do my head in if I were to lose the privacy of a single room, and have somebody else in the room with me. It may be too late to stop the transfer but I will try tomorrow. Norman I think you could be right about the stoma causing the problems, the surgeon did say it wasn't working properly before the 3rd operation, so it could be why the complications have occurred. Like that Norman I used the 'c' word!